Color Me Kubrick

Alan Conway gets krunked

By PETER KEOUGH | March 21, 2007

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Color Me Kubrick.

In the 1990s, British grifter Alan Conway posed as director Stanley Kubrick and bilked the ignorant out of small change or sex acts in sordid scams. Hardly Barry Lyndon material, though director Brian Cook cranks up the Handel saraband that served as Barry’s main theme (as well as The Blue Danube and other classic motifs from Kubrick’s films) at key moments, and John Malkovich has a great time as the huckster. In essence a seedy, swishy drunk, Malkovich’s Conway channels Charlton Heston, Slim Pickens, and Fran Drescher in his various Kubrick incarnations. His victims are all dullards, clowns, and fools, and neither does Conway offer much beyond his superficial audacity, pitifulness, and flamboyance. As for the vagaries and the angst of identity, the deepest film goes is a drunken stroll along the beach. This Conway never gets close to Kubrick. Neither does Cook, though he was a long-time collaborator of the late filmmaker; his movie might just as well be titled Color Me Kramer.

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Topics: Reviews , Charlton Heston, Stanley Kubrick, John Malkovich, More

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